Those Eyes
by turbomagnus
Summary: Clark returns to the woman he loves after telling his mother about their relationship doesn't go as well as he had hoped.


Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. Whether or not that goal can be reached, we'll see... This is The 365 Project, 20 February.

Normally, I write Clark/Alicia, but today I had inspiration for a Clark/Tess story. I haven't gotten to watch the last few seasons seasons as much as the earlier ones, and this is my first Clark/Tess story, so I ask you to forgive me if the characterisation isn't up to the same standards as my C/Ali stories.

Disclaimer: "Smallville" is the property of Warner Brothers Entertainment and DC Comics and is used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

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"Those Eyes"  
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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His lover looked up from the work on her desk and smiled at Clark Kent when he entered her office, "So, how did it go?"

"I'll bet you already know how it went," Clark rolled his eyes as he swung a leg up so that he was sitting on the corner of her desk.

Tess Mercer shook her head affectionately at Clark's choice of seating, "Well, what happened?"

Clark sighed, "What do you think happened? The 'Distinguished Senator from Kansas' proved for the second time in my life that she expects better of me than to fall in love with 'the wrong sort'. I never thought growing up that my parents would turn out to be such hypocrites."

"Bad parents... I think I've got you beat, Clark," Tess put her elbow on her desk and rested her head in her hand, "Now are you going to get off my desk or are you planning to take me on it?"

Clark looked at the redheaded woman and shook his head, "Can we skip the sexual tension-filled bantering today? I'm emotionally worn out right now."

"If we weren't at work, I'd offer to give you a massage and see if that helped," She smiled, "I'd even consider taking you home and offering anyway, but it wouldn't look good for the boss to cut out early and take her best reporter with her."

"Didn't I just ask for no banter, Beautiful?" He groaned before his head drooped down until his chin was against his chest.

"Tell me about it," Tess countered, "Maybe it will make you feel better."

Without raising his head, Clark picked up a pen off of Tess' desk and fiddled with it instead of answering.

"Clark..."

Putting down the pen, he raised his head up to look at her, "I went back to Smallville last night, you know..."

"I know," Tess nodded carefully, mentally noting that he hadn't said 'home to Smallville' or 'home to the farm' like he normally did when talking about the place where he had grown up.

"Well, I'm sure you also know that with the Senate in recess, my mom was back in Smallville as well," Clark sighed, "As good a time as any to tell her that I'm seeing someone, right?"

"Wrong?" she asked.

"Very wrong," he answered, then shook his head, "Actually, with the way she reacted, I'm not sure there would have been a good time. It's funny. Growing up they kept telling me 'don't just a book by its cover', 'don't judge people you don't know'... But they judged Lex by his father and now she's judging you by relatives you never knew you had until recently..."

Tess sighed and absently shuffled some of the papers on her desk around with her free hand, "I've gotten used to that already."

"You shouldn't _have to_," Clark answered passionately, jumping off the desk and beginning to pace the office, "For all I know, the only reason Lex ended up like Lionel is because no one ever bothered to give him a chance to be different. You're nothing like Lex and even less like Lionel, you're you, Tess, just you - I never knew Lutessa Luthor, but I love Tess Mercer just the same."

Clark clenched his fist and resisted the urge to punch the wall, knowing full well what would happen to it if he did, especially in his current mood, "And what does my mother, the woman who raised me and cared for me when I was growing up say when I tell her I'm seeing you romantically, that I'm pretty sure I love you? She says I shouldn't be going with you. She actually tried to use that old cliche of 'mother knows best' to convince me that you'd take my heart and break it in two, that you're 'just like the rest of the Luthors'..."

Clark stopped and looked Tess in the eyes, blue meeting green, "She even tried to tell me that you probably just thought of me as a one-night stand and you'd end up hurting me..."

Her head rose and her hand fell to the desk as Tess gasped in shock that Martha Kent would actually go that far in trying to control her son's life - it was no wonder that the one thing Clark hated second only to people hurting the ones he loved was people controlling him if that was how he had been brought up, and Martha had come dangerously close to doing both.

The pain in those green eyes made Clark hurt as he continued, "She said I'd find someone someday, but you're 'just not the one'."

"What..." Tess licked her lips nervously, "What did you say?"

Clark walked over to her and cupped her cheek with his hand, never breaking eye contact with the woman he loved, "I told her about a pair of green eyes, I told her that I'd seen something she'd never seen, I'd done something she'd never done; that she'd never seen those eyes, that she'd never felt the way they make me feel inside. That that beautiful pair of green eyes were eyes that I can and have gotten lost in just sitting and staring into them, eyes that made ever old cheesy line about the eyes being the windows to the soul ring true..."

The pain was gone, but now Tess was blushing as red as her hair at his words as he finished...

"I told her that they were eyes I wouldn't mind waking up to every morning or seeing my children with their own pair of some day in the future," Clark told her, moving his hand from her cheek as he stepped back and knelt down in front of her, pulling out of his pocket and opening a ring box before holding it where Tess could see it with those beautiful green eyes, "Tess Mercer, will you marry me?"

Clark's answer came as Tess smiled and a happy tear formed in the corner of her eye, "Yes."


End file.
